INSTEP Magzine

It is saying quite something when the biggest problem one has with a movie is its title. The "six feet under" addendum was hard to digest and made little sense, even after watching what has been one of the most satisfying thrillers to come out of Bollywood recently. And yet it seems almost criminal to associate Manorama with Bollywood as the latter has come to symbolize mindless song and dance routines with masala and histrionics in abundance. Manorama Six Feet Under is everything, a routine Bollywood fare isn't. Intelligent, intriguing, complex, dark, chilling and totally offbeat.

Inspired by Roman Polanski's noir classic Chinatown, Manorama adapts the former's themes of deception, power, greed and murder to a dusty town of Rajasthan. Yet this is no rip off but an intelligent and convincing homage and director Navdeep Singh is smart enough to acknowledge it in a scene where Chinatown plays on a TV screen in the background. The story unfolds through the eyes of Satyaveer 'SV' Singh (Abhay Deol), a government employee suspended from his job on charges of corruption. SV harbours a desire for writing thrillers but his first novel Manorama managed to sell a meager 200 copies. One night SV is approached by a mysterious woman (Sarika) who claims to be a fan of his novel and asks him to spy on her husband, the local politician Rathore (Kulbushan Kharbanda). She presumes that he will be of help because a writer of detective novels is the closest one can get to a detective in a small desert town. SV manages to take some photos of the minister and hands them over to Manorama. Soon enough he finds out that the woman is not who she claimed to be and launches an investigation into the whole affair which is vehemently opposed by his wife (Gul Panag) and brother in law Inspector Brijmohan (Vinay Pathak). Things turn bizarre as bodies start falling, SV is attacked by hoodlums, Manorama's room mate Sheetal (Raima Sen) enters the picture as do a local doctor and a girl claiming to be the childless Rathore's daughter. Without giving much away, the movie moves from plot twist after shocking plot twist to a finale which manages to shock and surprise even in this day and age when most viewers have seen enough potboilers and thrillers to predict a twist from a mile away.

Sure, as with any other movie there are some minor glitches along the way. For some the pace can get too slow at times, particularly in the first half. Yet one can argue that the pacing is deliberately slow and languid, reflective of life in a small, sleepy town. The director also gets to showcase his eye for detail with the peculiar mannerism of government office employees, nosy neighbours and muted background noises. The tension is highlighted by contrasting it with some very lazy shots depicting small town life like the shot of a stray dog roaming a dusty street. The plot also tends to get confusing at times but viewers must exercise patience for in the end everything comes together nicely and pieces like corruption, double crossing, voyeurism and extra marital affairs fit together like a puzzle to come up with an image that is shocking as much as it is satisfying.

Abhay Deol is perfectly understated in his dialogue delivery, expressions and mannerisms. The mustached look and leather jackets befits his middle class portrayal. Kulbushan Kharbanda is excellent as the cold, calculating yet suave politician. Vinay Pathak as SV's brother in law is a treat with his superb one-liners but doesn't get much screen time. The actresses are decent but don't have much scope in the story.

While the movie's catch phrase "Nothing is as it seems" has been used ad nauseam for the most predictable and obvious situations, it is after a long time that it is actually justified in the context of plot and characters as in the case of Manorama - Six Feet Under. Nothing here is, really as it seems.

– Mariam Khurram

*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME